Elevation of Sakar Khan's mosque [front elevation]

Pen-and-ink drawing of Dastur Khan's mosque (the image is incorrectly titled) at Ahmadabad in Gujarat, by M. Mewanjee (fl. 1875), dating to between 1884 and 1886. This image is from the Burgess collection, an album of 49 drawings of plans, sections, elevations, sculpture and architectural details of Muslim monuments in Ahmadabad and the surrounding areas, made between 1884 and 1886. The drawings were prepared mainly by Indian draftsmen under the supervision of James Burgess (1832-1916). Burgess was in India from 1855 to 1889. He served as the Archaeological Surveyor and Reporter for Western India between 1874 and 1880, with South India added from 1881 to 1885, before becoming the Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1886 until his retirement in 1889.

Situated on the banks of the Sabarmati River, Ahmadabad was founded by Ahmad Shah, Sultan of Gujarat, in 1411 on the site of the village of Asaval. The dynasty ruled until 1537 when Sultan Bahadur Shah was killed by the Portuguese at Diu. Gujarat was annexed by the Mughal emperor Akbar in 1572. The city is architecturally interesting as it boasts many examples of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Gujarati provincial Islamic architecture. This mosque was built by Dastur Khan, a minister of Muhammad Begada (r.1459-1511) in 1486. The courtyard is surrounded by cloisters with very fine carved stone screens.